This BusinessWeek.com article – How to Avoid the Commodity Trap – caught my fancy but I have to admit, it is a bit short on the “How to” part.\u00a0 The main thrust of the article is to treat your customers with respect.\u00a0 That is solid advice, but I was looking for more.<\/p>\n
But what the article lacks in tactical description, it makes up for with anecdotal stories.\u00a0 The article is a fun read.\u00a0 It closes with the author retelling a personal experience:<\/p>\n
My last example is personal. Two years ago, I dented my car and took it to a body shop for an estimate. A large tattoo-covered man stood behind the counter. And behind him, on the wall, hung a sign that did not inspire confidence in the respect that this establishment had for its customers. The sign read: “We screw the other guy and pass the savings on to you.” I inquired meekly: “I hope I’m not \u2018the other guy’?”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Can you imagine that sign hanging in the lobby of some corporation?\u00a0 Actually, there are a few companies that I can imagine using that slogan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This BusinessWeek.com article – How to Avoid the Commodity Trap – caught my fancy but I have to admit, it is a bit short on the “How to” part.\u00a0 The main thrust of the article is to treat your customers with respect.\u00a0 That is solid advice, but I was looking for more. But what the article lacks in tactical description, it makes up for with anecdotal stories.\u00a0 The article is a fun read.\u00a0 It closes with the author retelling a personal experience: My last example is personal. Two years ago, I dented my car and took it to a body shop for an estimate. A large tattoo-covered man stood behind… Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"bgseo_title":"","bgseo_description":"","bgseo_robots_index":"","bgseo_robots_follow":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[12,17],"tags":[1763,189,188],"class_list":["post-1363","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-anecdotes","category-marketing","tag-marketing","tag-mission-statement","tag-slogan"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5Oho-lZ","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1413,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2008\/02\/vision-statement-vs-leadership\/","url_meta":{"origin":1363,"position":0},"title":"Vision Statement vs. Leadership","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"February 11, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Color me skeptical, but I am just not a fan of vision statements, mission statements, company statements and whatever else is the latest iteration.\u00a0 I prefer P&L statements.\u00a0 I could be wrong on this so I'll provide an article from BusinessWeek.com titled Vision Decisions. The opening graph: Feeling the pressure\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Leadership"","block_context":{"text":"Leadership","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/leadership\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":422,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2006\/11\/go-for-no\/","url_meta":{"origin":1363,"position":1},"title":"Go For No","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"November 7, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"We are fans of Jeff Thull's approach to selling as we commented in a post from this past summer. Now Thull has a new article in the latest SMT enewsletter - The Science and Art of Go For The No Selling. I recommend you read the entire article, but here\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Sales Management"","block_context":{"text":"Sales Management","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/sales-management\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":848,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2007\/04\/value-you-or-your-product\/","url_meta":{"origin":1363,"position":2},"title":"Value – You Or Your Product?","author":"Mike Cardinal","date":"April 24, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Selling Power.com published an article entitled Six Sins of Selling that discusses modern changes in selling and sales people's need to change and adapt to them. Certainly that statement is true, but item #2 especially caught my attention. Sales Sin #2: Selling personality rather than value Customers will buy from\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Sales Techniques"","block_context":{"text":"Sales Techniques","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/sales-techniques\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1437,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2008\/02\/reasons-you-are-not-selling\/","url_meta":{"origin":1363,"position":3},"title":"Reasons You Are Not Selling","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"February 25, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"This article is from the Salesopedia website.\u00a0 The article is excellent and rather amusing to read (probably since I am guilty of many of the author's items).\u00a0 For instance: If you\u2019re a professional salesperson and you\u2019re not selling, it could be because: \u2022 You are boring. Do customers cut you\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Sales Management"","block_context":{"text":"Sales Management","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/sales-management\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":359,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2006\/10\/faith-in-the-workplace\/","url_meta":{"origin":1363,"position":4},"title":"Faith in the Workplace","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"October 11, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"CareerJournal offers another well written article covering a topic of interest to us - Managing by the (Good) Book Some Mix Business with Faith. As Christians, we have been in many discussions about faith in the workplace. We are strong supporters of it and do not believe that there needs\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Sales Management"","block_context":{"text":"Sales Management","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/sales-management\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":912,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2007\/05\/coffee-culture-marketing\/","url_meta":{"origin":1363,"position":5},"title":"Coffee Culture Marketing","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"May 11, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"I graduated with a degree in psychology and I have a coffee addiction so abcnews.com's article was irresistible: Starbuck's Psychology. The article points to some specific, subtle marketing principles incorporated by the ever-expanding Starbuck's chain: It has everything to do with the marketing strategy behind this designer coffee chain, which\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Marketing"","block_context":{"text":"Marketing","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/marketing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1363","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1363"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1363\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}